


The Favor

by LaughingFreak



Category: Naruto
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, set after pein attack on village
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:29:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23481691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingFreak/pseuds/LaughingFreak
Summary: Before the war escalates to its peak Neji meets Temari for breakfast to ask her for a favor.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji & Temari, Hyuuga Neji/Nara Shikamaru, Nara Shikamaru & Temari
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	The Favor

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely connected to my oneshot "The Box", but you don't have to read that one to understand this one. This could also be seen as something not connected to that oneshot too (which is why I didn't make a series tag for this because it can be seen either way; hell, I see it either way depending on my mood).
> 
> Other than that, here!

Shikamaru kissed the pale skin of his husband’s shoulder, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him close. His husband sighed. It was nearing mid-morning, a time later than usual for Neji still be in bed and not out training, but every time he tried to crawl out of the bed Shikamaru would suck him back into his arms.

Eventually his husband has to let go. Usually, the shadow-nin wasn’t one to grab him in his sleep, but with Neji working a couple extra missions here and there and sleeping less than normal Shikamaru has made it his duty to help him relax so he ‘ _didn’t lose his husband to an early grave from pushing himself too much_ ’.

Which was ridiculous, by the way. He wasn’t over working himself. The village was low on shinobi as the reconstruction of Konoha was still going on after Pein’s onslaught. Neji was just doing his job.

Besides, if he had his way he’d be in ANBU not too far in the future.

That didn’t help his situation right now, which was the arm wrapped securely around his waist. Neji sighed. “Shikamaru, I need to go.”

“You don’t have a mission today, stay in bed for a few more hours. For once.” Shikamaru pressed his forehead to the back of his shoulder, the same shoulder he kissed.

Neji rolled his eyes. “I’m meeting with Temari for breakfast, so unless you want to deal with her wrath or have me get Gai-sensei for an impromptu training session for you, then you’ll let go.”

Shikamaru groaned and flopped onto his back, arm over his eyes, a grimace on his face. “Troublesome.”

Neji snorted and smiled before sliding out from underneath the covers, pale, bare skin open to the world. He went to their shared closet and pulled clothes out for the day. He looked down at himself and made a face and huffed, then made his way to the shower.

He glanced at the clock before closing the door, sighed at the time, and went to quickly clean up.

By the time Neji came out, dressed and ready to go, Shikamaru was sitting up in the bed smoking a cigarette, sheets bunched at his waist. He crinkled his nose. “The window, Shikamaru.”

Shikamaru looked at his husband then to the closed window across the room, back to Neji before he took a drag from his cigarette with a shrug.

Neji glared then sighed, walking to the bedroom window and grumbling. “Stupid, lazy husband…”

“You weren’t saying that last night.”

The other man lifted the window open and glared at his husband. “No ashes in the bed.”

Shikamaru hummed and exhaled an air of smoke.

“Shikamaru.”

He sighed. “Yeah, yeah, got it…” Shikamaru moved to sit at the edge of the bed and wrapped the sheet around his waist as he made his way over to the window to finish his cigarette.

“Thank you,” said Neji. He moved to his husband and kissed his cheek. Shikamaru moved to kiss him on the lips, but Neji pulled away before he could. Shikamaru rolled his eyes. “I’ll see you later.”

“Tell Temari that she lost the bet and that she needs to pay her share to Ino,” said Shikamaru as he blew out smoke.

Neji narrowed his eyes. “The bet with Kiba?”

His husband nodded. “The bet with Kiba.”

The Hyuuga sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know how Hinata deals with him sometimes.”

* * *

When he reached the restaurant that he was to meet Temari it was on time with barely a minute to spare. The blonde kunoichi was already there waiting, coffee in hand, but he was not late. At this point that was more than good enough since he was married to a lazy genius.

He walked up to the table and took a seat, “Temari, thanks for meeting me.”

She set her cup down, but kept a hand on the handle as she leaned back in the chair. “We don’t work together often and mostly I talk with Shikamaru, so when you requested to see me I have to admit to being curious.”

“Of course.” The waiter came to the table and asked for his order. “Your morning’s special with a green tea.” The waiter nodded and left with his order. “How’s Suna? Things going well there?” he asked.

Temari sighed. “The elders are pushing against every change that Gaara’s trying to make, but Gaara got a couple things through just recently. Could be going better though.”

“Is Suna going to be able to host the Chuunin Exams coming up?” There were rumbling about whether Suna was going to be protected enough to host the exams with what was going on and what has happened to the redhead since losing the one-tailed beast. Plus, with the Akatsuki still out and about people were wondering if it was even a good idea to have the exams. The kages were pushing to continue it, for one reason or another.

She glared. “We aren’t weak, we’ll be able to.”

“I never said you were, but people talk,” he said. The waiter came back with his tea and then left once again. He took a sip and hummed.

The fight seeped out of her and she gave a heavy sigh. “I know, but everyone’s talking about everybody and it’s getting old fast.”

“Politics is a battlefield all on its own.”

“No kidding. It’s no wonder everybody ages when they take a political position.”

Their conversation paused for a moment as the waiter came back with Neji’s plate. Neji thanked him and took a bite of food as the man left. They spoke of the upcoming Chuunin Exams and genin and their prospects, the need for well-versed medic-nin in Suna, and how Neji and Shikamaru finally had time to furnish their apartment properly since moving back in after Pein’s attack with the insistence of Ino and Hinata. They spoke of the reconstruction of Konoha and about what was going on with the rest of their friends.

“Shikamaru wanted me to let you know you lost the bet.”

“The Kiba bet?”

“The Kiba bet.”

She groaned. “Goddamn it, who’s in the lead?”

Neji shrugged. “You’d have to ask Ino when you go to pay in. I’m pretty sure Shikamaru is still in the running.”

“Of course he is, the bastard…”

He was halfway through his breakfast when he took a sip of his tea and decided that small talk had lasted long enough. Temari noticed the change and sat straighter, her cup drained of the last bit of coffee long ago.

With a deep breath, he jumped right into it. “Things are going to get worse before they get better. There are still Akatsuki members out there and there is still much we don’t know. A war is brewing, it’s in the air and every shinobi feels. I feel it and you feel it.” He licked his lips and gripped his cup. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know I want my husband to be safe and looked after.”

“What are you asking of me, Neji?” asked Temari, frown marring her face as her mind already jumped to conclusions.

Neji looked her in the eyes. “If I die will you look after Shikamaru?”

She was taken aback, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. “What?”

“I want you to look after Shikamaru if I die. You love him and know him almost like I do, you can be there for him in ways that others couldn’t be. I trust you to do right by him if I’m no longer around.”

For a while, Temari didn’t say anything as she took it in and chewed it over and Neji waited patiently as he finished his food. He knew the blonde kunoichi loved his husband, maybe not in the same way that he did but she loved him in her own way. It was probably unconventional to someone that wasn’t a shinobi to ask this of someone that could’ve possibly been with the man he married if things turned out different, but shinobi were different.

He had just finished his last sip of tea when she finally spoke.

“I might not live either,” she said, pointing out a flaw.

“None of us might, but if one of us happens to I’ll rest easy knowing that if I’m gone someone outside his team can be there when I can’t.”

“And if both of us die?”

He gave a small smile. “Then I guess I’ll have to haunt him for the rest of his life.”

That got a smile out of her and a snort. “Sounds like a blast.” She took in a deep breath. “You have my word.”

Neji closed his eyes and relaxed his body. “Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> The bet with Kiba XD


End file.
